Laudator Temporis Acti

Martial 3.38 (tr. D.R. Shackleton Bailey, with his note):

What reason, what prospect brings you to Rome, Sextus? What do you hope or look for from there? Tell me.

You reply: “I shall plead cases more eloquently than Cicero himself and nobody in the three Forums shall be my match.”

Atestinus and Civis pleaded cases—you knew them both—but neither covered his rent.

“If nothing comes out of that, I’ll write poetry. Hear it, and you’ll say it’s Maro’s work.”

You’re crazy. All these people you see here in frosty cloaks are Nasos and Virgils.

“I’ll dance attendance on great halls.”

That line barely supported three or four, the rest of the crew is pale with hunger.

“Advise me what to do. For I’m determined to live in Rome.”

If you’re an honest man, Sextus, you can live at random.<sup>48

48</sup> I.e. from hand to mouth; on the phrase casu vivere see SB¹ (and cf. εἰκῆ ζῆν in Soph. O.T. 979). Only rogues can make a regular living in Rome.

Quae te causa trahit vel quae fiducia Romam,
    Sexte? quid aut speras aut petis inde? refer.
‘causas’ inquis ‘agam Cicerone disertior ipso
    atque erit in triplici par mihi nemo foro.’
egit Atestinus causas et Civis — utrumque       5
    noras —; sed neutri pensio tota fuit.
‘si nihil hinc veniet, pangentur carmina nobis:
    audieris, dices esse Maronis opus.’
insanis: omnes gelidis quicumque lacernis
    sunt ibi, Nasones Vergiliosque vides.        10
‘atria magna colam.’ vix tres aut quattuor ista
    res aluit, pallet cetera turba fame.
‘quid faciam suade: nam certum est vivere Romae.’
si bonus es, casu vivere, Sexte, potes.

14 bonus es codd.: penus est Shackleton Bailey
casu codd.: censu Håkanson

SB¹ = D.R. Shackleton Bailey, "Corrections and Explanations of Martial," Classical Philology 73.4 (October, 1978) 273-296 (at 275-276).

Thanks to Eric Thomson for pointing out that line 7 of the Latin is faulty in Martial, Epigrams. Edited and Translated by D.R. Shackleton Bailey, Vol. I (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993 =Loeb Classical Library, 94), p. 214 (read nobis for hobis):

Labels: typographical and other errors